Easels of tripod style have been available for many years for displaying panels and canvases, flip charts, sketchbooks and the like. A conventional tripod easel usually comprises an apex, three legs pivotally connected to the apex and at least one supporting member for holding objects for display mounted on the easel. Most easels use rigid metal braces that permanently lock the legs in place. However, designs that permanently lock the easel legs in place make the storage and transportation of such easels difficult and costly. In addition, all easels in the prior art fail to provide a durable design to reduce friction and wear resulting from pivotal movement of the legs contacting the apex, especially when the legs and the apex are made of materials such as powder-coated metal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,413 to Glebe is directed to a collapsible easel having a plurality of legs pivotally joined together by a head. V-shaped rigid bracing elements are provided with receptacle portions receivable at the rear leg and end projections for pivotally mounting the bracing element in pre-drilled openings in the side edges of the front legs. The receptacle portion is generally rectangular-shaped, thereby defining a cavity or receptacle within which the rear leg is slidably received. Clearly, the design of the reference patent only works on legs having a square tube shape, and not on round or any other closed geometric shaped tubes. The design of the reference patent only permits a fixed extension position or angle, since the receptacle portion must rest at the top of the lower portion of the rear leg. When the rear leg is being folded or extended, damage to paint or powder-coating on the rear leg of the reference easel is likely to occur due to relative movement of the receptacle portion on the top of the lower portion of the rear leg. Finally, the amount of grip provided by the support braces of the reference easel will largely depend on the opening angle formed by the two front legs and the rear leg. If the front legs were to move or flex away from each other or the rear leg, the support brace would then spread further apart in response, which would decrease the amount of grip the support brace can generate against the rear leg.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,974 to Rellinger discloses a portable easel with an adjustable board support comprising a plurality of legs joined together by a head. The design of the reference easel does not include a brace assembly for the legs to enable a stable locked position of the legs while the easel in use and to provide a mechanism for collapsing the easel for easy transportation and storage.
None of the previous easels in the field comprise a removable support brace that provides an easy-to-use and stable design for various types of easels made of leg tubing, and that can be adapted to allow an operator to tilt the easel at various angles while in use. Also, no prior easel includes a cushioning mechanism in the areas where the legs contact the apex to reduce friction and wear resulting from pivotal movement of the legs abutting the apex, especially when the legs and the apex are made of materials such as powder-coated metal.
Thus, it is a primary objective of this invention to provide a collapsible easel that is stable, durable and adjustable.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a collapsible easel for holding display panels, canvases, sketchbooks, flip charts and like objects of varying sizes.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an easel that is easy to assemble with quick and intuitive operations.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide additional support to stabilize the easel so that the legs of the easel will not move relative to each other when the easel is in use, or when the legs move into or from a collapsed position.
An additional objective of the present invention is to provide an aesthetically pleasing design of an easel.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a mechanism to reduce friction and wear resulting from use of the easel.